{"id":454,"date":"2021-05-11T15:39:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T15:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markteer.com\/blog\/?p=454"},"modified":"2022-07-07T11:31:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:31:28","slug":"social-crm-lead-generation-tips-for-b2b-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markteer.com\/blog\/social-crm-lead-generation-tips-for-b2b-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Social CRM Lead Generation Tips for B2B Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The marketing industry has witnessed the evolution of social media through the years and it is the most effective lead generation tool today. As many as 82% of businesses use LinkedIn exclusively for branding and lead generation. Social media has quickly shifted gears from business-centered to consumer-centered, the reasons being its reach and interactive nature. Today, consumers turn to social media for answers and product comparisons before they choose a product. Businesses that do not include social media in their marketing strategy are losing out compared to those that are leveraging it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Why social CRM for lead generation?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Most marketing executives list \u2018lead quality\u2019 as a top priority. Generating high-quality leads is a big challenge (An IDG study says 61% of marketers report that their biggest challenge is to generate high-quality leads). Quality of lead or a verified SQL (Sales Quality Lead) is a measure of accuracy for conversion and the challenge of accumulating those is a humongous one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What is a Social CRM?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-456 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/markteer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/What-is-a-Social-CRM.png\" alt=\"What is a Social CRM?\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.markteer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/What-is-a-Social-CRM.png 800w, https:\/\/www.markteer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/What-is-a-Social-CRM-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/www.markteer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/What-is-a-Social-CRM-768x384.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Social CRM is customer relationship management and engagement with customers or prospects using social networking sites. It is an effective tool to address the quality social lead generation challenge, using a highly defined automated process.\u00a0<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.business2community.com\/infographics\/guide-social-media-lead-generation-infographic-0999970\" class=\"editor-rtfLink\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Social CRM helps<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0to;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Improve the quality of leads &#8211; Compared to outbound marketing, social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close ratio<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Decrease costs &#8211; Social media marketing has reduced marketing costs for 45% of businesses<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Enhance brand exposure &#8211; 83% of marketers invest in social media to increase brand exposure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Increase web traffic &#8211; 69% of marketers invest in social media to increase web traffic<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Despite the perceived risk of productivity loss, businesses should encourage employees [marketing and sales] to use social media with a pre-defined strategy. If you chose not to, you may be losing out on a major chunk of leads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Let us look at some of the social CRM lead generation tips for B2B companies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">1. Consider different channels and identify your target channel<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">There are multiple social platforms where a product or service can be marketed &#8211; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram etc. Though it\u2019s good to be present everywhere, a business needs to identify those channels that fit its needs, i.e consider the buyer persona of a business. For example, if you are in the restaurant business, LinkedIn may not be the right platform to advertise your menu. Identify channels which are ideal for buyer personas critical to create a workable social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">However, if you are offering business services or selling a front-end business tool, LinkedIn is a great social media platform for such businesses and 44% of\u00a0<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/how-generate-leads-through-social-media-monti-parauha\" class=\"editor-rtfLink\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">B2B marketers claim to have generated leads from this platform<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. If you are not sure on which channel to zero-in on, you can run tests to identify:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Which channel produces a high number of leads per campaign &#8211; Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or a combination of two or more.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Time involved per conversion &#8211; How much time did a \u2018follower\u2019 take to convert to \u2018lead\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Clickbait &#8211; Which offers got the most interest &#8211; free trial, a webinar, white paper, product demo or any others.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">2. Post your ads on social media<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Paid advertising can generate a significant amount of high-quality leads. Facebook ads are budget-friendly, especially when compared to other networks like Google AdWords. Facebook ads are also known to work well if you have a well-defined strategy in deploying them. If you have chosen Twitter to advertise, you can choose between promoted tweets, promoted trends or promoted accounts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">LinkedIn offers an all-in-one advertising platform through its Campaign Manager. Here, you can manage and optimize your advertising. It supports sponsored content, sponsored InMail, and text ad formats. You can also place exclusive and highly-visible ads to premium audiences through dynamic ads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Use web forms on the social networks<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">You may be getting many clicks on the social media ads, but your job doesn\u2019t end there. You have to collect lead information to pass onto sales, how would you do that? To convert followers to leads, you have to collect lead information through landing pages and web forms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Social CRM collects the information of leads from landing pages and gives out an entire list of leads. It can analyze and report on &#8211; which campaigns worked better, which social network generated better-qualified leads, a number of new leads generated, etc &#8211; so that you are empowered on social selling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">You can leverage social marketing by:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Embedding a landing page on the Facebook page\/Ad, LinkedIn page\/Ad, where prospects can easily view the offer and fill out the form.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Create a web form through Twitter ads, that circulates among Twitter followers so that you can send it directly to\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">social CRM tool<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Every social platform has its own techniques of lead capturing, and you will need to leverage them to make the most of the exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">4. Run contests on various platforms<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Facebook and Twitter are good platforms to run contests. But it\u2019s important to consider these two points before running contests,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The offer should be lucrative enough for the prospects to respond<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It should be aimed specifically at a potential segmented audience to convert to customers and not generalized<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">If the contest is not interesting enough, prospects may refrain from participating. Generalization brings a huge number of participants and it will be difficult to pick out qualified leads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Depending on your business, including offers like &#8211; free trial of the product, extension to premium accounts, or even extend the trial of the product through retweeting\/ sharing\/ liking\/ following or click through to a landing page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">5. Enhance social media listening<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Social media listening is nothing but keeping an ear out for brand mentions, competitor mentions or industry-related conversations. Social CRM identifies all of these easily. It gives direct access to potential leads who are looking for a solution just like the ones you offer. CSO and Seismic together surveyed and found that one in three B2B professionals mentioned that social selling tools increased the number of leads they had to work with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Though social listening generates potential leads, it\u2019s primarily used to establish and build relationships with prospects. By leveraging search streams to monitor industry keywords, one can discover conversations with people about relevant products and services. Businesses can reach out to people from these conversations to establish a relationship by offering a demo of the product. By doing this, you are positioning your brand as the resource for the prospect to approach when he is ready to make a purchase decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">6. Cross-promote the social media channels<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Promote one channel on the other social media channels. You website should have links to your social media channels. Cross promotion on social channels doesn\u2019t involve investment and can successfully expand brand\u2019s reach because you enhance your reach. Cross-promotion also provides a credible introduction to the new audience, unlike traditional one-on-one social media promotion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Facebook allows third-party app integrations. You can add a tab for LinkedIn, Twitter etc. Users can click on tabs to check posts from other social channels. You can also partner with a non-competition brand to cross promote across social channels. Choose from influencers, businesses outside your niche or non-profit organizations. Also, try including social sharing buttons on all pages and blog posts they can potentially enhance click-through rates by over 150%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">7. Improve the SEO<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Lead generation through SEO is the primary driver for generating new leads.\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Why SEO<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">? Let\u2019s look at some\u00a0<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.business2community.com\/infographics\/guide-social-media-lead-generation-infographic-0999970\" class=\"editor-rtfLink\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">interesting facts<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Globally, internet users make 4 billion searches every day<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">61% of internet users research products online<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">75% of users look at only the first 3 results when searching for something online<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">There are over 10.3 billion Google searches monthly<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">44% of online shoppers begin with a search engine, usually Google.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">So, it\u2019s not just important to be online, it is also important to be at the top of Google search. Lead generation through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markteer.com\/seo-agency-services\">SEO<\/a> needs user intent research &#8211; both inform (when someone is looking to learn about a product) and purchase (when someone is shopping for keyword description).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">8. Connect more with your audience<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Social media is more than a\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markteer.com\/lead-generation-services\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">lead generation technique<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0&#8211; it\u2019s primarily used to create a positive impact about the brand since you want your brand to resonate with your audience. When REI closed on Black Friday or when Patagonia accused the President of stealing land &#8211; they gained a huge favor in terms of likes and follows, for standing for the right cause. It did not stop there &#8211; REI amassed huge sales on the opening Saturday and Patagonia gained a huge loyal customer base.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">With increasing competition, it is tough to crack prospects through cold calling. 90% of top customers (decision-makers) say that they never respond to cold calls and 76% of buyers are ready to have a conversation on social media. Social CRM leverages social selling and is a big bang for your buck. Social CRM helps marketing and sales teams to find unique and creative opportunities to engage with prospects. Let us know which other social media tips do you use for lead generation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The marketing industry has witnessed the evolution of social media through the years and it is the most effective lead generation tool today. As many as 82% of businesses use LinkedIn exclusively for branding and lead generation. Social media has quickly shifted gears from business-centered to consumer-centered, the reasons being its reach and interactive nature. 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